Benitez told liverpoolfc.tv: "He will need time. The problem is that if you have important games and you can only have 16 players in the squad, so it will be difficult to say when we can include him. But we have seen him play 45 minutes with the reserve team last week and also with the first-team against Cardiff.

"Maybe it will be the same in the future, but it is not easy to say when we will use him. For example, in the Champions League you can select 18 players in the squad, so maybe it will be easier to get him involved. But it also depends on the other injuries - so we need to wait. I cannot promise anything, I cannot say that he will play or he will not play."